1. Field of Art
Bowling alley accessories are used to aid blind persons in aligning themselves on the approach floor of an alley in preparation for delivering a bolwed ball.
2. Prior Art
A waist-high guide rail with weighted standards has been used in bowling alleys for assisting blind bowlers to properly orient themselves in approaching an alley to bowl a ball, the bowler sliding his free hand along the rail during his approach for maintaining proper direction of travel. Such devices are obstacles to free movement about an approach area and are particularly annoying to sighted bowlers. Additionally, they are cumbersome and unweidly to move and to store. U.S. Pat. No. 3,039,771 to Bablouzian provides a rubber mat for being placed on an approach floor which is provided with a series of ridges on its upper serface which deliniate the centerline and lateral edge extensions of an alley. The ridges are perceived by a bowler through tactile sensing with his feet and enable the bowler to align and laterally position himself with respect to an alley. Other devices have been utilized which through electric or elctronic means produce audible tones indicating lateral position of a bowled ball during its progress along an alley, or which sense the number and position of bowling pins knocked down by a bowled ball and transmit such information to a touch-read display which is located at the head-end of an alley or which is hand-held by a bowler.